Public Policy

  • September 09, 2026

    'Weird Space Stuff' To Get Boost Under FCC Spectrum Plan

    The Federal Communications Commission plans to vote Sept. 30 on a "spectrum abundance" plan meant to fuel a variety of space-based industries by opening up the airwaves across two spectrum bands.

  • September 09, 2026

    Mich. To Revisit Line 5 Tunnel Permits After High Court Ruling

    Michigan environmental regulators will reconsider permits issued in July for Enbridge Energy LP's proposed Line 5 tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac after the Michigan Supreme Court found earlier this year that a separate state approval of the project relied on an improperly narrow environmental review, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Wednesday. 

  • September 09, 2026

    NJ Tech Chief Seeks To Avoid TikTok Depo In AG's Fraud Suit

    New Jersey Chief Technology Officer Kevin Dehmer has asked a state court judge to block TikTok from deposing him in the attorney general's consumer fraud lawsuit, arguing that he has no firsthand knowledge of the allegations and that forcing a high-ranking state official to testify is unwarranted.

  • September 09, 2026

    Unions, Feds Reach Deal In Gov't Shutdown Layoffs Suit

    A coalition of unions has reached a settlement in principle with the Trump administration resolving litigation in California federal court challenging layoffs at federal agencies during the 2025 government shutdown, pending approval from the U.S. Department of Justice.

  • September 09, 2026

    State Dept. Starts Reprocessing 43K Paused Visa Applications

    The State Department said it has taken steps to start reprocessing visa applications related to the agency's now vacated 75-country visa pause, saying 43,000 applications are subject to a New York federal court's recent order.

  • September 09, 2026

    FTC Chucks Biden-Era Health App Breach Notification Policy

    The Federal Trade Commission, as part of its regulatory streamlining, has rescinded a Biden-era policy requiring health applications and smart devices that collect information to warn users when their medical data has been breached.

  • September 09, 2026

    HMRC To Make Non-UK VAT Group Members Claim Refunds

    Businesses outside the U.K. that are members of a value-added tax group will need to submit their own VAT refund claims under a new scheme aimed at addressing "an unintended consequence" of exiting the European Union, HM Revenue & Customs said in a policy paper.

  • September 09, 2026

    Mackinac Island Says Ferry Operators Created Discovery Fight

    A northern Michigan island resort community has urged a federal court to reject ferry operators' bid to compel testimony from a city representative, arguing that the companies created the discovery dispute by refusing to narrow sweeping deposition topics covering as much as 16 years.

  • September 09, 2026

    DC Circ. Declines To Halt DOJ's Cannabis Rescheduling

    The D.C. Circuit on Wednesday rejected a bid to freeze a final U.S. Department of Justice rule rescheduling medical marijuana while opponents challenge the policy in the appellate court.

  • September 09, 2026

    Del. High Court Upholds Under-21 Handgun Restrictions

    The Delaware Supreme Court has reversed a lower court ruling against a state law restricting handgun access for most 18- to 20-year-olds, finding the measure did not violate the Delaware Constitution's right to keep and bear arms.

  • September 09, 2026

    Mass. Justices Probe $8M Waterfront Sale To Audubon Group

    A justice on Massachusetts' top court asked Wednesday whether a court-appointed receiver had a duty to investigate more lucrative offers before selling an 18-acre abandoned industrial site to a nonprofit that intends to turn the property into a wildlife sanctuary.

  • September 09, 2026

    FCC To Consider 911 Reliability, Robocall Consent Regs

    The Federal Communications Commission this month will consider studying 911 reliability to ensure the service is always available even as legacy copper-based networks go by the wayside.

  • September 09, 2026

    Great Britain To Briefly Cancel VAT On Domestic Electricity

    The United Kingdom will cancel value-added tax on electricity for domestic purposes in Great Britain from October through March, according to HM Revenue & Customs.

  • September 09, 2026

    California Judge Ends Tribe's Challenge Over Village Site

    A federal magistrate judge has ended a dispute between two California tribes over the management of an Indigenous coastal village site, determining that the Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad Rancheria is an indispensable party in the litigation that is protected by sovereign immunity.

  • September 09, 2026

    Judiciary OKs Student Interns To Accept Certain Law Firm Stipends

    The federal judiciary's ethics arm has approved a policy allowing law firms to pay judicial interns, as long as the payments are not directly related to their work for the courts and not paid out during their internship or externship.

  • September 09, 2026

    Economists Tell Fed. Circ. Float Rates Bar Temporary Tariff

    President Donald Trump's temporary global tariff lacked legal justification in the current international monetary system, a group of economists, including former U.S. Treasury secretary and Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, told the Federal Circuit on Wednesday in a brief supporting challenges to the duties.

  • September 09, 2026

    Paramount Doubles Down On $1.9B Bond Bid In Merger Suit

    Paramount has insisted the Writers Guild of America and state attorneys general cannot avoid putting up a roughly $1.9 billion bond as they challenge the media company's $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, saying their arguments against its bond bid fail under the Clayton Act.

  • September 09, 2026

    US Bans Canadian Alcohol, Motorcycles After Tariff Retaliation

    President Donald Trump continued the U.S. trade offensive against Canada after its northern neighbor's retaliatory tariffs went into effect, announcing a ban on Canadian imports of certain alcohol, dairy products and motorcycles starting this month.

  • September 09, 2026

    Cambodia Joins WTO Appeal Arbitration Arrangement

    Cambodia has joined a World Trade Organization appeal arbitration agreement designed as an alternative to the WTO's main appellate body, bringing the total number of participants to 62 and covering over 60% of global trade, the European Commission said Wednesday.

  • September 09, 2026

    Calif. Judge Seeks Clearer Limits On ICE Use Of Medicaid Data

    A California federal judge ordered 22 states and the Trump administration to reach an agreement on the proper scope of his injunction limiting Medicaid data use for immigration enforcement, saying he's unsure how it should apply to people with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status.

  • September 09, 2026

    5th Circ. Appears Skeptical Of La. Abortion Pill Suit

    Louisiana's solicitor general faced tough questions Wednesday from a Fifth Circuit panel about the state's standing to challenge federal regulations that allow abortion medication to be mailed to patients in the state.

  • September 09, 2026

    Ohio Bill Would Limit Tax Breaks For Institutional Investors

    Ohio would limit interest and depreciation tax deductions for institutional investors who own single-family or two-family properties under a bill introduced in the state House of Representatives.

  • September 09, 2026

    3rd Circ. Vacates Approval For NJ Pipeline Project

    The Third Circuit has vacated New Jersey's approval of a water quality certification for Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co. LLC's proposed Northeast Supply Enhancement project, ruling that the state unlawfully deferred requirements for monitoring and corrective action and failed to explain how the project would meet water quality standards.

  • September 09, 2026

    Texas Justices Won't Hear Pastureland Values Protest

    The Texas Supreme Court said Wednesday it won't take up a local school district's challenge to the state comptroller's assessment values of pastureland, keeping in place a lower court ruling that the local appraisal district failed to justify a reduction.

  • September 09, 2026

    West Point Faculty Speech Policy Blocked As Unconstitutional

    A New York federal judge permanently barred West Point from enforcing a policy that prohibited professors from expressing opinions about the subject matters they were teaching their students, finding the directive unconstitutional.

Expert Analysis

  • At The Intersection Of Right-To-Repair Laws And IP Rights

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    Right-to-repair legislation passing through Congress highlights a broad tension between manufacturers' security measures and consumer autonomy, with important repercussions for the automotive industry's intellectual property rights, says Keith Noe at Lando & Anastasi. 

  • Opinion

    States Should Reconsider Forced PBM Divestiture Laws

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    State legislatures are attempting to enact policies intended to force pharmacy benefit managers to divest from pharmacies, but these laws would have the practical effect of reducing patient access and competition, potentially violating the U.S. Constitution in the process, says former Utah Attorney General John Swallow.

  • HSR Deals Proceed More Steadily Than Narratives Suggest

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    The most recent Hart-Scott-Rodino Act data show that transaction volume remained relatively stable, transaction values continued to increase and enforcement activity remained low, suggesting that enforcement rates have been relatively consistent across presidential administrations despite widely differing public rhetoric regarding merger enforcement, says Amanda Wait at Michael Best.

  • Assessing The Benefits Of Fla.'s Newest Business Structure

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    As of July 1, Florida business owners can create protected series LLCs to shield assets from liability while avoiding increased costs and wasted time, but burdensome recordkeeping obligations are crucial to maintaining the very protection that makes them attractive in the first place, says Gregory Ritter at Moritt Hock.

  • Key Post-Proposal Shifts Likely In CFPB Loss Mitigation Rule

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    Mortgage servicers, borrowers and consumer advocates should prepare for a likely narrowed version of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's loss mitigation rule, which is likely to permit sequential reviews, defer to investor guidelines, extend compliance timelines and preempt conflicting state standards, say attorneys at Goodwin.

  • Series

    Teaching SEC Investigations Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Instructing a law school course on U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigations has made me a more thoughtful, deliberate practitioner because it requires me to continually reassess and challenge what I know about securities law enforcement, how I know it and how best to explain it, says David Chase at Miami Law.

  • Noncompete Laws Show States Focusing On Bans, Healthcare

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    The first half of 2026 confirms that state legislatures are driving the most consequential changes in noncompete law, including a few state bans and several healthcare-specific laws, making a one-size-fits-all approach increasingly untenable for multistate employers, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

  • What's Inside Proposed, Expanded NY Stablecoin Regulations

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    New York's recently proposed regulations for payment stablecoin issuers would, if adopted, increase the regulatory burdens of a state license, and midsize issuers considering a conversion to a federal charter should weigh the associated costs of both options, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Justices' Tax Sale Ruling Tees Up Auction Fairness Battles

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Pung v. Isabella County, Michigan, that taxpayers are not entitled to fair market value of real property seized to satisfy a tax debt shifts attention to the fairness of state and local auction procedures, and whether taxpayers claiming surplus proceeds face unwarranted hurdles, say attorneys at Miller Canfield.

  • What Corporate Counsel Can Learn From OpenAI Test Breach

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    The significance of the recent artificial intelligence testing breach involving OpenAI and Hugging Face lies in what it reveals about the path of AI’s evolution, because legal professionals must translate that trajectory into actionable governance, contractual and advisory frameworks, says Jason Mueller at Vorys.

  • Patent Eligibility Reforms Keep Chasing The Wrong Fixes

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    Repeated efforts to create a consistent, predictable patent eligibility standard under Section 101 have centered on replacing judge-made exceptions with new statutory language, but the better fix is to align examination standards with how courts actually apply eligibility doctrine, says former Patent Trial and Appeal Board judge Amee Shah.

  • Opinion

    Qualified Immunity Bill's Reach Goes Beyond Federal Officers

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    The federal Qualified Immunity Abolition Act, introduced earlier this year and described by the bill sponsors as a federal-officer measure, would in actuality reach the entire universe of Section 1983 defendants, a distinction that matters as much to defense counsel as to plaintiffs, says attorney V. James DeSimone.

  • State Of Insurance: Q2 Notes From Pennsylvania

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    Todd Leon at Marshall Dennehey highlights notable second-quarter insurance developments in Pennsylvania, including federal court opinions providing guidance on first-party and third-party insurance coverage principles, and a pending bill seeking to regulate health insurers' use of artificial intelligence.

  • Assessing DOJ Antitrust's New, Faster Merger Review Option

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    The U.S. Justice Department Antitrust Division's recently announced targeted second request option and new model timing signal a commercially friendly stance and a departure from the prior administration's position, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

  • NRC Proposal May Reshape Radiation Protection Framework

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    The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s proposal to drop the long-standing requirement to keep radiation exposure "as low as reasonably achievable," alongside the U.S. Department of Energy's removal of ALARA from its own rules, suggests a broader federal reassessment of radiation protection policy, say attorneys at Womble Bond.

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